Sacred Steel lap tunings

[Ron Castle]

Does anyone know what lap tunings these players use? I've seen the PSG tunings on
Carters site, but was wondering about Derick
Campbell and Sonny Treadways' tunings..

[nick allen]

I'm pretty sure Sonny Treadway plays in Open E
Nick

[nick allen]

Further to yesterday's post:
The booklet in my copy of the first Sacred Steel CD states that Sonny Treadway plays an 8-string steel, tuned to an E Major chord, and that the 7th and 8th strings are "lower than a regular guitar's bottom E string". Maybe another B and E? bass strings? (It also says he doesn't like to play with a bass player, because they get in each other's way).
Nick

[Bobby Lee]

It's great fun to watch Darick Campbell play bass parts on his little Fender Deluxe. I'm pretty sure that his low three strings are B E B, but he uses fatter gauges than you would expect. I think he also backs off the tone control when he plays bass parts.

Darick is so cool when he plays bass on steel!

[Ron Castle]

I would have thought they were using something like an E7.
re:fun watching Darick, the Campbell Brothers
are a blast to see. I saw Chuck play PSG
standing up and working pedals!

[Bob Stone]

Aubrey Ghent and Henry Nelson used high bass Dobro tuning (1-3-5-1-3-5) I've seen Ghent pitch it anywhere from G to Bb. Nelson always pitched his to Bb and used very heavy strings--about the gauge you'd use for G--ouch!

I never got Sonny's exact tuning (he was more than a little secretive), but it is straight E major with an E on top. I was probably mistaken when I wrote that the bottom two strings were pitched below the low E on a std. guitar. Some have an E on strings 6 and 7 (that's right, 2 strings at the same pitch), the B on string 8. I think Sonny uses a low B on the bottom, but it could be just an E. Those walking boogie bass lines he plays are almost always executed on one string, the bottom one.

Calvin Cooke uses an E7th with the d note on the 2nd and 6th strings. The 7th and 8th are B and E. So there is only one 3rd degree of the scale--G# on the 4th string On some of his guitars he pitches the chord to C for his singing voice. When someone else is singing, it's usually pitched to E.

Darick Campbell uses a tuning like Calvin's but with a C# on the 2nd string making it an E6. Sometimes he has a D note in the bass. And sometimes--even in the middle of a tune--he brings the 2nd string up to d. His 8th string is a B and really fat--something like .078--and he adds bass tone via the tone control knob when he is bassing.

That ought to keep you busy! Lonnie Bennett, who is snowed under right now, might have some corrections to make to the above when he gets time, but I should be mostly right.

Really, in the end it's what they feel an play, not the tunings.

Amen!<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Bob Stone on 26 January 2001 at 05:18 PM.]</p></FONT>

[Bobby Lee]

Bob, is this Darick's tuning? <font face="monospace" size="3"><pre> E
C# (sometimes D)
B
G#
E
D
E
B </pre></font>

[J D Sauser]

CARTER Steel Guitars has some of their pedal tunings up on this page.... Weird stuff!!

------------------
The future belongs to culture. jaydee@bellsouth.net
<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by J D Sauser on 27 January 2001 at 07:03 AM.]</p></FONT>

[Bob Stone]

b0b,

Too clear my mind I just spoke to Chuck Campbell. The tuning you have listed is one of Darick's tunings--two, counting the change from C# to D on the 2nd string. Here are some alternate bass string tunings he uses. Darick is known for changing tunings on the spot--even in the middle of a number.

6. B
7. G#
8. E

or

6. E*
7. B
8. E

or

6. D
7. B
8. E

*same as string 5

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Bob Stone on 31 January 2001 at 10:23 AM.]</p></FONT>

[Ron Castle]

Thanks all, I sometimes thought I was hearing a 6th tuning, other times a 7th in Daricks playing.

<SMALL>in the end it's what they feel an play, not the tunings</SMALL>

Not just 'they' but everyone!